Insights on Machine Learning & AI by Sam Leung

It is not every day that one gets to have a deep one-on-one on a topic that is currently making not only headlines but also being integrated more and more in life. After having a delightful session with Sam Leung , VP of SEM and Ad Technology at The Aber Group, hosted by one of my professors Wendy Greenwood at George Brown College on Machine Learning and AI.

I have always been curious about AI, but also intimidated by it because of how fast it is growing and how it feels like an integral part of personal and professional life. Moreover, how we were becoming dependent on it. So, the thought of it being integrated on a higher level into jobs, corporations, and institutions, and replacing more and more people was daunting, but through this seminar, Sam made such points that made me realise that it is us, humans who are still needed in the world to correct and execute things. AI may be able to learn things but how would it learn if humans weren’t the ones to create a foundation for it? What surprised me the most from what Leung was talking about, is that which debunked my perspective of AI fully replacing humans in the corporate world. Sam helped me to see beyond the perspective I had of AI before.

Sam also helped me realize that AI is not something to fear or be intimidated from, it could be a tool that we could use to upskill ourselves. We could utilize it to learn something new, do our research and hone our cognitive skills to verify things because it is providing us with information, but it won't be able to recognise or differentiate to support the needs of every work, campaign or see the finer differences that would work or not.

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Accuracy of AI

We may not realize it that often, but we use AI frequently in our lives. Using grammar tools, or image filters to post on social media, or maybe finding the music, or stuff through search engines just by showing things or making it hear something. Also, using Co-Pilot or ChatGPT to enhance the work or get ideas for my personal life and professional life. It also helps me research topics and helps me by providing links to search the content. It also helps me enhance the work I have done, put more flair to it to make it more engaging and catchier, and provides me with things from a new and different perspective.

In the case of the accuracy, I feel it is accurate in some areas, but it is somewhat not in some. I have tried using it to give me more theoretical answers which I feel have been somewhat on point, but it lacked imagination. Moreover, I also wanted it to calculate stuff for me where it somewhat failed in about 60% of the complex calculations. I feel the part of it being accurate is a grey area, where how you perceive and how AI perceives it matters the most. Adding to it, inputs from Gen AI are even personalised through every search but are generic to everyone. It doesn’t think of itself but picks stuff from various sources regardless of them being accurate, but from how it perceives the information out there. So, I feel some issues when accepting content from Gen AI.

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Career Prospects from AI and Machine Learning

Even though I have accepted AI, and have my perspectives changed from the session by Sam, I am still sceptical about it being in the market. I have though decided to make a better effort to put my time and effort into knowing and learning about AI, so I can leverage it rather than getting sidelined by it. AI has its own merits and demerits and I have to be careful and vigilant while using it. I also have to train it by carefully giving prompts that would help me make it better use for myself, and my career. I can be a weapon in my arsenal of skills to use and enhance my work.

Finally, all my understanding and gathering from this session was that there is no stopping AI as it has started to integrate itself into our lives meticulously. Therefore, using it should be a skill rather than a backstep in our lives. Most of all though, using it ethically, and carefully, and keeping the personal aspect to it is what would make it a weapon, or a tool because without content having a touch of a human, it is just that content and not a resource. ?